Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Strategies & Market Trends : Currents of Currency -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ahda who wrote (48)	5/23/2003 4:14:50 AM
From: GUSTAVE JAEGER	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 594

Thanks for that thought-provoking article! I believe that, of all the semi-clandestine, power-elite clubs, Bilderberg is the most potent.... As for the uniting process in Europe and China, I'm afraid the former is to the latter what amorphous glass is to quartz --here's a clue: Amorphous Europe vs Chinese Quartz Solid state physics is largely devoted to the study of crystals and their physical properties. Solids can be grouped in two basic structural categories, amorphous and crystalline. Amorphous materials have a random network of bonded atoms; there is no repeatable structure or predictable order to the atoms. An example of an amorphous material is glass where the silicon-oxygen bonds are random. Conversely, the atoms in a crystal are bonded in a regular repeating pattern that form a lattice. A lattice is defined as a regular spatial display of points, when refereeing to a crystal lattice these points represent the sites of atoms in the crystal. The smallest set of repeatable points is called a unit cell. The unit cell is an area or volume that can be translated by lattice vectors to fill space, of which there are 14 possible variations called the Bravais lattices. An example of a crystalline material is quartz, where the silicon-oxygen bonds are repeated in exactly the same way throughout the material. One should note that glass and quartz are both composed of silicon and oxygen, in fact pure glass is often referred to as fused quartz. This shows that crystals are defined by structure and not composition. It is structure that gives crystals fascinating optical, electrical, and physical properties. [...] uta.edu Instead, in nature SiO2 is often found as a crystalline solid, with a structure like you see on your right []. Every silicon atom is bonded to four oxygen atoms, tetrahedrally, of course; and every oxygen atom is bonded to two silicon atoms. When SiO2 is in this crystalline form we call it silica. You've seen silica before. When you find big honkin' crystals of it we call it quartz. When we have a lot of little tiny crystals of it, we call it sand. But this silica isn't glass. We have to do something to it first to make it into glass. We have to heat it up until it melts, and then cool it down really fast. When it melts, the silicon and oxygen atoms break out of their crystal structure. If we cooled it down slowly, the atoms would slowly line up back into their crystalline arrangement as they slowed down. (Remember, heat is nothing but the random motion of atoms and molecules. Hot atoms move a lot, cold atoms move very little.) But if we cool it down fast enough, the atoms of the silica will be halted in their tracks, so to speak. They won't have time to line up, and they'll be stuck in any old arrangement. ...We call materials like this amorphous. This is the glass that is used for telescope lenses and such things. It has very good optical properties, but it is brittle. [...] [] pslc.ws